The West Point Candidate Book: How to Prepare, How to Get In, How to Survive

THE

WEST POINT

CANDIDATE BOOK

HOW TO PREPARE • HOW TO GET IN • HOW TO SURVIVE

THIRD EDITION

with

RANDY LEE

Silver Horn Books Monument, CO

Cover photo courtesy USMA.

Copyright: © 1990, © 2000 by William L. Smallwood

© 2009 by Sue Ross

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information contact Silver Horn Books, c/o Sierra Consulting, 20030 Silver Horn Ln., Monument, CO 80132.

First Edition 1990; Second Edition 2000; Third Edition 2009.

Although the authors and publisher have exhaustively researched all sources to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or an inconsistency herein. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

THE INSTITUTION

The Academic Institution

The Military Institution

Graduates Speak: What The Academy Experience Did For Me

HOW TO PREPARE

Mental Preparation Comes First

Expect Academic Shock

Professors’ Advice About Academic Preparation

Physical Preparation

Other Preparation

HOW TO GET IN

Applying To The Academy: Getting Started

The Second Step: Getting a Nomination

Tips From Congressional Staffers

Interviews: Advice From Those Who Conduct Them

Alternate Routes To West Point

HOW TO SURVIVE

The Challenging Plebe Year

Advice From Plebes

The Upperclassmen Tell How To Survive

Academic Survival Tips

Teamwork

Advice For Intercollegiate Athletes

Advice from a Minority Graduate

Survival Advice for Women

Living with Honor

The Realities of Combat

Advice For Parents

Acknowledgements

INDEX

The mission of the United States Military Academy is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.

A WORD FROM THE AUTHORS

Do you think you might want to go to the United States Military Academy at West Point?

The first thing you should do is visit the Academy’s web site and study it. You will learn the history of the institution, the kinds of courses you can take, the specifications of the physical and medical examinations that you must pass and the names and background of all the professors. (The admissions web address is www.admissions.usma.edu. You can find additional information at www.usma.edu.)

This book repeats some of what is on the web site, and often refers you to specific pages of the web site for more details.

Mainly, however, this is a how to book.

It will tell you how to prepare for the Academy.

One chapter, which is probably the most important one in the book, tells you how to prepare mentally—how to ensure you approach the challenges of West Point with the right attitude, motives, and perspective. Other chapters tell you how to prepare academically, physically and in other important ways. Some of the preparation advice is intended to help you get into West Point; some is designed help you succeed once you get there.

This book will also give you valuable advice on how to get into the Academy.

The admissions process is very complex. Many of your peers will eliminate themselves simply because they fail to complete all the required steps. If you are dedicated enough to see the process through, you have already separated yourself from much of the competition.

The second section describes all the admissions procedures. One chapter describes how to get a congressional nomination and some of the pitfalls of that process. Other chapters give you guidelines on how to conduct yourself during interviews, and how you might be able to get into the Academy by alternate routes if you are now unqualified or have failed to get in by the regular procedures.

The book also tells you how to survive when you get to the Academy, with proven advice acquired through interviews with hundreds of cadets, graduates, professors, and staff officers—those who know what works and what doesn’t.

In one chapter you learn about the first year which, from a physical and psychological standpoint, is the hardest. In other chapters the cadets tell you what you must do to survive, with special advice for intercollegiate athletes, women and others who will be in the minority at the Academy.

We hope this book will help if you are not sure whether you should apply to West Point, by letting you see what a cadet’s life is like. We hope you will be honest about whether you belong there.

If you do decide to go, and receive an appointment, we recommend that you reread the chapters in this third section very carefully.

The final chapter is for parents. It is a compendium of advice gleaned from interviews with a wide variety of parents from around the United States. The advice comes from parents who have had sons and daughters at the Academy and who believe some of the hard lessons they learned should be shared. Cadets also offer their own advice for parents on how to—and how not to—support them.

After you read this book, take an honest look at yourself and see if you have the one thing you need most: a burning desire to become a West Point cadet. If you are easily discouraged or don’t feel that burning desire, take some friendly advice and start collecting college catalogs from places like Princeton or Oklahoma State—and save yourself lots of headaches.

A final word: Thousands upon thousands of young men and women have made it into the United State Military Academy and managed to graduate. Practically all of them will tell you that it was one of the greatest experiences of their life—that it made them into something they would never have become without that experience. If you really want to be all that you can be, go for it!

SCR & RHL

ONE

The Academic Institution

The United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, is located on the Hudson River, about 60 miles north of New York City.

The buildings are clustered on a high bluff on the west side of the river. This is the site where General George Washington had a fort built during the Revolutionary War to guard the Hudson River and keep British ships and troops from moving upstream. Washington feared that if the British controlled the river, they would divide the young nation and conquer each half separately.

West Point is located on the banks of the Hudson River. United States Military Academy

General Washington also had a heavy chain stretched across the river as a barrier against ships. This was a monumental task because the chain weighed 150 tons and had to be floated into place each spring and removed each autumn before the river froze.

The combination of the fort and the chain was successful, and no British ship managed to pass during the war. However, the outcome might have been different had not some colonists stopped and searched a man coming downstream from the fort. They discovered a paper hidden in his shoe, a proposal from the commander of West Point for selling the plans of the fortifications to the British. The man carrying the proposal was hanged as a spy. The commander of West Point, General Benedict Arnold, escaped to Great Britain but lived the rest of his life branded as a traitor, even by the British.

In 1802, Congress established the U.S. Military Academy on the site where the fort stood. The mission of the Academy was to train officers who would also be engineers for the Army—a goal George Washington had long advocated because of the desperate shortage of engineers during the war.

West Point became the first military and engineering school in the United States. However, its academic standards for the first fifteen years were very loose and the quality of its graduates was questionable.

The academic program improved after 1817, when Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became Superintendent of the Academy and strengthened the academic standards. Included in his program were two new requirements: (1) all students, called cadets, will recite every day in every class, and (2) no class will contain more than 15 cadets. The small class size enabled instructors to quiz each cadet and thereby hold each one of them accountable for every assignment. This approach became known as the Thayer Method, and to this day influences instruction at West Point.

Thayer served as superintendent for 16 years. During his tenure the quality of education at the Academy improved greatly and soon it was turning out the high quality engineers the young, growing nation badly needed.

Throughout the years, West Point has trained many of America’s top military leaders. During the Civil War, those included Union Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Meade, and Confederate Generals Lee, Johnston, Jackson, Bragg and Longstreet. The President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, was also a graduate. Of the 60 major battles fought in that war, West Pointers commanded both sides during 55 of them, and in the other five battles there was a West Point graduate commanding either the Union or the Confederate forces. After the war, West Point graduates helped settle the western frontier.

During World War I, the general commanding the American forces, John J. Pershing, was a West Pointer. Also in that war, Colonel Douglas MacArthur, Class of 1903, was decorated nine times for extraordinary heroism while fighting in France.

During World War II, West Point again provided most of the key leaders: Generals Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and Clark in the European theatre; Generals MacArthur, Stillwell and Wainwright in the Pacific; and General Hap Arnold in Washington who led the Army Air Force.

Two of those wartime leaders went on to become U.S. Presidents. General Grant served two terms, from 1869 to 1877. General Eisenhower also served two terms, from 1953 to 1961.

Why the history lesson? A popular saying at West Point goes, The history we teach was made by the people we taught. If you are considering attending the Military Academy, you will be expected to know and appreciate its legacy.

If you attend West Point, you become part of American history. USMA

Perhaps more importantly, the saying implies an obligation: You need to think of yourself as part of the next generation of leaders. In the twenty-first century, West Pointers such as General David Petraeus and General Ray Odierno are leading the war on terrorism, and will help write the next chapter of American military history. Future graduates will no doubt have the same heavy responsibility.

THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM

Despite the strong connection with the past, the mission of West Point today is changing to meet the broader needs of our highly technical, highly mobile Army. Today’s Army needs officers with a broad education who will have the ability and desire to keep on learning throughout their professional careers.

All cadets take courses that will enable them to master the technological challenges of the Army—courses such as calculus, chemistry, computer science, and physics. They also study political science, foreign language and culture, history, economics, literature and writing, and geography—subjects that will give them the skills and intellectual breadth to grow and function in (and out of) the Army.

At the heart of West Point’s curriculum is the core—31 courses across a broad field of study that provide a common foundation for every graduate. West Point offers 45 academic majors, including new majors in regional studies and terrorism studies, reflecting the environment where today’s new officers will serve.

How good is the academic program at West Point? The Princeton Review ranked West Point in the top ten of American colleges in the categories Most to do on Campus, Most Accessible Professors, and Best Classroom Experience. Forbes ranked it the 6th best college in the nation, in the company of Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton. U.S. News and World Report ranked West Point the Top Public Liberal Arts College, and 5th best Undergraduate Engineering Program.

West Point professors are dedicated to helping cadets learn. USMA

Another measure of success is graduate scholarships. West Point has had 88 Rhodes Scholars since 1923, the fourth highest number in the nation, and a significant accomplishment considering thousands of American college students compete for just 32 Rhodes Scholarships each year. West Point graduates have also received a large number of Truman and Marshall scholarships and Fulbright grants.

By these measures, one can see that West Point is widely respected as an academic institution. But what makes it so good?

At the top of the list is the attitude of the professors. The faculty is made up of approximately 80% military officers, many of whom have recent combat experience along with their academic degrees. The other 20% are civilians, many of whom have years of teaching experience and impressive academic credentials.

Regardless of their backgrounds, they share a dedication to their academic discipline and to teaching—or more accurately, a dedication to their students’ learning. The Thayer Method has evolved, but cadets can still expect small class sizes and frequent graded exercises that ensure preparation and understanding.

Instructors will also make themselves available for Additional Instruction, meeting struggling cadets in their offices or the library to go over difficult material. As the Vice Dean explains, We’re not working under an attrition model. If we accept a cadet, we expect him or her to succeed. Our mission is to be accessible to cadets. While West Point professors publish papers and conduct meaningful research, their primary mission is teaching cadets. This explains the recognition for most accessible professors mentioned above.

Despite this extra help, not every cadet will be able to meet the academic challenges of West Point. Each year, a small number will be disenrolled for failing to meet academic standards. But they will leave knowing that the institution did all it could to help them succeed. As one upperclass cadet explained, Everyone here wants to help you succeed.

In summary, while West Point is unmistakably a military school with the mission of creating U.S. Army officers, it will provide you with an education as good as or better than any in the country. Yet there is one other distinct difference: At many large civilian universities, you will probably be a faceless body in a large lecture hall, a number on a roster, someone the professor has probably never met. At the Academy, you will receive the personal attention of a dedicated faculty who knows your strengths and weaknesses, a faculty committed to your learning and available to help you when you stumble. In the words of a math professor, If you want to succeed, if you’re willing to make the sacrifices, the help is there for you.

That’s hard to beat. And it’s free, right? Well, in the literal sense, yes. But as any cadet or graduate will tell you, it isn’t that simple. The next chapter will begin to explain why.

TWO

The Military Institution

West Point is a first-class college, and a West Point degree will prepare you well for any career, whether in uniform, government, academia, or business.

But make no mistake: West Point is a military school. For this reason, the life of the cadet is nothing like the life of a student in a civilian college. If the traditional college experience is what you’re after, the freedom and fun you’ve been hearing about from your older siblings and friends, best look elsewhere.

The military training during the first year is the hardest. It begins around the first of July, and consists of an initial seven-week indoctrination period, officially called Cadet Basic Training (CBT), sometimes known as Beast Barracks, or just Beast.

CBT has a number of purposes. First is to teach the new cadets¹ the traditions, courtesies and basic knowledge of the Army in general and West Point in particular.

Second is to train the new cadets the way a new soldier in the Army would be trained. This includes training them to follow orders instantly and without question, teaching them basic combat skills, and pushing them through a rigorous period of physical development.

Third is to put the new cadets in a very demanding environment where they will be forced to learn how to manage their time efficiently and use teamwork to achieve the goals set for them. The demanding environment teaches self-discipline, and the teamwork training teaches the new cadets to subordinate their individual desires and work for the betterment of the group. This, in turn, develops the group pride which is essential for any effective military unit.

CBT is designed to integrate new cadets into West Point and Army life, and teach them what it is like to be a follower—the idea being that they will make better officers and leaders when they know what it is like to be a new soldier.

Cadet Basic Training is simply the first and most concentrated segment of an overall four-year leadership development program, a program discussed in extensive detail in following chapters. The military training during the academic year is not as concentrated as during CBT; however, with a heavy load of demanding classwork, and the additional pressure of mandatory intramural athletics (required of all cadets who do not play intercollegiate sports), the pressure of the leadership development program continues to be a heavy source of stress throughout the academic year.

Combat training begins during Cadet Basic Training. USMA

The cadets say that every year there are new cadets who report to West Point believing that once the seven weeks of Beast are over, they are relatively free to become normal college students. Do not be so naïve!

According to many cadets, the end of CBT and the beginning of the academic year is the hardest part of the year. They point out that during CBT, the new cadets outnumber the upperclassmen who are giving them the training. But, with the beginning of the academic year and the return of the whole Corps of Cadets, the plebes are outnumbered almost three to one—with almost every upperclassman eager to bring his or her own talents to the job of plebe military development. Further, during CBT, new cadets are told exactly what to do and when to do it, and are almost always in a group of their peers. Once the school year begins, plebes must figure out how to juggle multiple tasks, and many find that the little bit of freedom they now have can be a dangerous temptation.

The candidate also should put the leadership development program into perspective. It is not only a system to develop plebes; the system also provides an environment for the upperclassmen to work on their own leadership skills.

On R-day, the first day of CBT, you will leave behind much of your hair and your old life. USMA

It is a goal of West Point to turn out officers with the leadership skills needed to function in the Army immediately after graduation. They learn some leadership skills during various summer training experiences, which include short stints in the real Army. But their main experience comes from within the institution through the leadership responsibilities they assume as upperclassmen.

Nearly every cadet will spend at least one dark night wondering what their buddies from high school are doing, what life is like at State U, what they are missing while shining shoes and studying knowledge, the seemingly endless list of facts, quotes, and current events all plebes must memorize. Most will question, at least for a moment, why they are enduring the intense, rugged, four-year experience of the Academy.

Is it worth it? Consider the following: First, each graduate receives a Bachelor of Science degree from one of the finest colleges in the country. Second, each graduate is awarded a commission in the Army as a second lieutenant. Thus, unlike civilian colleges, West Point gives its graduates a job guarantee. Third, they will have bonded with friends who will be their friends for life—friends who